Thread: The loss of basic skills in school

That's quite a different thing.... cough cough....

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

You know what I really think? I think these poor kids are just the dumb pawns of cynical marketing ploys by organisations like Apple. Like a drug dealer giving a free hit to create an addict. Apple doesn't really care if students get better educational outcomes - it cares about market share and shareholder returns, like all good listed companies should. If you think otherwise, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

James.

Sarcasm or not. I'm afraid that the older i get the more i think like this.

Well, Apple's business isn't educating children, that's what schools are for.
Apple sells 'design' and 'status' as a mass product and have been better than just anybody else at what they're doing. Their profits and cash reserves are the proof. And all that's in 'bad economy' where people are supposed to be cutting back on nonessentials precisely of the kind that Apple sells. You can't blame a monopoly either, they've increased their market share from 5% to 15%, it's apparently just people love to pay for what Apple is selling.

If I'm Apple's CEO the next store I'll open will be right on the Brooklyn bridge

Originally Posted by Bruno

Here's an idea: if everything is going electronic, how are kids supposed to develop good writing skills?

I have read reports and emails from people where the writing skills were horrible in spite of MS Word and other word processing applications. I even catch my own errors and I use MSWord at work and Pages at home on my iMac.

Well, the quality of the writing is not affected by the use of technology. In fact the technology makes it much easier to improve it, since it allows for much faster editing than using, for example, chisels and stone.
For me there are no better word processors than vi and emacs, and no better publishing software than LaTeX. MSWord/Pages/etc. are for those who don't mind that their documents look like those of a first grader.

Originally Posted by gugi

Well, the quality of the writing is not affected by the use of technology. In fact the technology makes it much easier to improve it, since it allows for much faster editing than using, for example, chisels and stone.
For me there are no better word processors than vi and emacs, and no better publishing software than LaTeX. MSWord/Pages/etc. are for those who don't mind that their documents look like those of a first grader.

Exactly Gugi. The word processor programs are only good as the person using it.

I meant actual penmanship.
My oldest daughter is learning cursive writing in first grade. I was told that in some US schools, that isn't even taught.
But penmanship is important. And important documents should still be hardcopy imo.

We have writing of thousands of years ago. Writing is what allowed us to pass information from generation to generation, even if that information was being suppressed at the time. Sometimes even across millenia (dead sea scrolls). Hard copy is robust. Electronic data however is extremely fragile. The risk of abandoning penmanship means being completely dependent on electronics.

Btw, this is even more important with eastern languages. The youngest generation of Japanese has an affliction that is called waapuro baka, meaning 'wordprocessor stupid'. Youngsters are forgetting their kanji because they are not writing it anymore, and their i-whatever has gotten very good at input prediction. They'll type the word phonetically, and the device will substitute with kanji. But when they have to actually write it themselves, they have problems trying to write the kanji correctly.

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

Attachment 77586

Last weekend I discovered the local law enforcement doesn't think it is as funny as I do!

I am shocked that some young people can't tell time on an anolog clock. My 24 year old nephew can't read or write cursive and neither can most of his friends, unbelievable!

About handwriting and grammar... I'm in a skilled trade now, after a couple of decades in white-collar world. Because I have neat block printing and know a subject from a verb from an object, I get all the cakework assignments of labeling and updating. I'm an electrician, but know these skills would matter in a number of other trades. We still have to communicate and it's not all spoken.